I'm fairly new to tubeless, learning about it via gravel. I just installed this tire, it has one uneventful ride of about 36 miles on it. I noticed it was soft about a day after that ride so I pumped it back up and this is how it looks now; lots of small bubbles on parts of both sidewalls. Typical? Will the holes just seal up? I have only had a few tubeless tires and I've never seen this previously; this is a WTB Venture with Bontrager sealant if that matters..
Not unusual. They should seal. If not, Orange Seal or Panaracer Seal Smart are the best at sealing casing IME. Rinse out the old sealant if you switch. No need to remove any that has dried.
I'm pretty new to tubeless too, 2 years now on gravel and MTB bikes so I'm interested in what others will say. I just read a sentence on a website reviewing some rene herse tires. one blurb mentioned the thinner sidewalls of the herse tires may require a thicker sealant to not seep through sidewalls, like orange seal sealant. so, maybe your tires are designed with thinner walls and the bontrager sealant is of a thinner viscosity. Just speculation.
I run Schwalbe Thunder Burts which have a thin sidewall. I use Orange Seal Extreme. My sidewalls do not seep.
Did you give them a good spin and shake and let them lay on their sides for a while? That will let the sealant close all the pores in the sidewalls. See this vid, starts around 1:28 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtKp22cf_k (or watch it all for good measure)
At my end I just set up a set of Donnley PDX tires that I thought was tubeless. Turns out they weren't. I put it on the side for 24 hrs which helped seal it up. Good luck at your end.
Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate being able to tap into the experience of those who have been tubeless for awhile. The tire seems to be holding air better; I am letting it sit overnight on each side to see if that helps. I am about out of the Bontrager sealant and was planning on moving to Orange Seal since it seems to be the current standard so maybe that will help as well.
You might get better results if you pump it up to 50 lbs and go ride it. Just stay close to the house. I think you just ran into a tough seal. Doesn't matter what you are using. I have used about 3 different sealants so far and haven't seen much difference.
I've sealed a lot of tires and the only tires that it seeped out of the sidewall were not TUBELESS ready tires. Not saying a tubeless ready tire won't do that. As far as sealant goes, a Panaracer rep wasn't using their sealant because it was junk compared to Orange and Stans.
Well, there are plenty of tires like Schwalbe or Conti that won't do this because they have an inner liner rather like an inner tube. But, there are plenty of "tubless ready" tires that don't have this, they weigh about 100g less per tire, and need about half a week to really seal up the pores properly.
Again, thanks for the replies, I am enjoy learning and feeling like I know what I am doing within the tubeless realm. This tire is definitely a tubeless tire; it seems to be sealing up so hopefully all is good. I will probably try the ride at high pressure recommendation as that certainly seems logical to me.. Interesting about the Schwalbe & Conti tires, I had no idea about that even being a possible difference.
Koyote wrote:When in doubt, use Orange Seal. And take the advice from @stevef , above.
Koyote have you ever heard of Stan's race? Read somewhere where somebody was using it and said it had much larger particles which seal better but you also couldn't shoot it thru the valve stem it was so thick.
Update and more thanks for the continuing responses..
I have laid the wheel on each side for full day and yet new bubbles appear. That being the case, I did a 30 mile ride with not issues. After a few days the tire was definitely a bit softer. My thinking is that my next move is to add some Orange Seal and see if that makes a difference. So, do I add it to the existing Bont sealant or drain that and start over?
He reported that is was holding air reasonably well. “A bit softer” after a few days constitutes holding air quite well.
Re-reading @SWGraveler ‘s last post, maybe it’s not entirely clear...But I understood that the tires are still bubbling sealant thru the sidewalls. If so, I would return them.
Yes, tubeless will lose some air. But if he has done everything right, and they are still bubbling out of the sidewalls, that’s a tire problem.
The Compass Extra Light tires are essentially sewups without the latex bladder; sealant takes its place. The sidewalls are therefore super thin, and will sometimes seep for a long time. It’s a sign of how incredibly supple they are. And I can attest that running those babies at low psi is nothing short of cheating, compared to people running thick-walled tires at 10-15 psi more.
I check my pressures every ride. If the tires need a few psi, I top them off. The need for air after a day is not a defect. It’s a feature.
If one can’t live with the looks of some seeping, send them back and get thicker tires.
